This invention relates generally to devices for carrying items, and more particularly to devices for carrying children or small pets.
The use of a shoulder sling to carry a child dates back to prehistoric times. The simple task of toting a baby securely requires little more than a basic loop of fabricxe2x80x94technique used by caregivers in virtually every culture at some point in its history. Improvements to the basic sling have included adding a solid shelf support for the hip (U.S. Pat. No. 781,033); making the length-adjustment buckle more secure (U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,598); adding adjustable bumpers (U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,887); refining the pouch (U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,925); incorporating pillows and cushions (U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,960); designing the sling to accept a car seat (U.S. Pat. No. 5,573,156); incorporating the sling with a stabilizing hip belt (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,544,088; 4,724,987; and 4,436,233); and numerous other refinements.
Child carrying devices fall into three basic categories: simple slings, two-shoulder carriers, and hip carriers. These categories can be further broken into combinations and subsets such as inward-facing versus outward-facing, front-pack versus back-pack, prone versus seated, leg separation, lap and shoulder restraints, and other defining embodiments, each of which is well represented in the art. The claimed invention derives from the simple sling configuration.
The basic, over-the-shoulder sling is recommended by various pediatric books and publications (Sears, Ch. 14, Parenting Magazine, April, 2001, pp. 153-159). A significant advantage to the basic sling is that the child has numerous options as to seating and/or lying position depending on the configuration of the sling on the parent""s shoulder and the child""s position within it. However, in order to safely accommodate numerous permutations of child size and carrying position, these hammock-like slings must incorporate a considerable area of fabric, which by careful alignment of the folds, seams, and integrated bumpers, can be adjusted to accommodate the child in various seating and lying positions. Although simple in design, these slings tend to be quite bulky and cumbersome to wear.
This bulkiness is problematic for several reasons. It renders the sling heavy and difficult to pack and/or store. It requires more material to manufacture. It tends to add visual xe2x80x9cweightxe2x80x9d to the wearer. This visual weight is particularly undesirable in that women, especially women who have recently given birth, are particularly sensitive about any clothing or accessory that might make them appear heavier than they are.
The most basic support elements of a sling are a shoulder strap and a side/back rest. There are several examples of devices which focus on these basic elements (U.S. Pat. Nos. 522,018 and 2,468,588), but they all tend to forfeit safety and comfort to achieve simplicity. For instance, the xe2x80x9cboson""s chairxe2x80x9d approach, a semi-rigid seat, tends to lack flexibility and comfort (U.S. Pat. No. 2,690,864).
Other sling variations incorporate a drawstring to configure the protective bumpers or edge gunwales of hammock-like devices (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,950,887 and D332,865).